Samurai Warriors 5 Review
The warriors’ series has been around for quite some time now and Koei Tecmo’s Omega Force division has no doubt become the masters of producing these grand hack and slash marvels. From what I could count, Omega Force has managed to put out over 55 different variations of the ‘warriors’ formula featuring a wide range of properties including Gundam, Berserk, Persona, Zelda and One Piece just to name a few.
For the uninitiated, Samurai Warriors and the ‘Warriors’ series as a whole are Musou type games. A Musou game means you’ll be playing a third-person hack and slash action game with RPG mechanics and thousands (no, really!) of enemies per level to slice and dice your way through.
Samurai Warriors 5 doesn’t buck the trend and is a pure Musou title through and through. Set in a sensationalised version of the Sengoku era, as you start, you’ll be commanding the somewhat cocky Nobunaga Oda and the first few chapters or so this is who you will be playing as exclusively. The bulk of the games story mode revolves around the relationship between Nobunaga and Mitsuhide Akechi.
The opening missions act as somewhat of a tutorial introducing you to the numerous mechanics while setting up a pretty compelling story. As you progress through the early levels, you’ll slowly unlock the games features such as the Dojo, Blacksmith and stables. From here you’ll be able to level up, set abilities, improve weapons, set weapon skills and level up and improve your horse. There’s actually quite a lot to do while not in battle, you’ll even be collecting items to upgrade these facilities across the course of the game, which means there’s always a reason to take your time between missions and see what’s available or what upgrades you can procure.
Samurai Warriors 5 story is somewhat rigid, which makes for a slightly more concise narrative and doesn’t try to give too much screen time to secondary characters, the core cast get all the development they need. This does feel a little odd when you begin to unlock additional characters only to realize they cannot actually be used in a story mission, but only in ‘free mode’ which is essentially replaying past missions. I can understand why, as the roster is a whooping 37 fully playable characters and the game does go out of the way to give them all some screen time, but some of the lesser characters do feel a little neglected. Personally, I’d take the more concise story rather than a tangential mess that would come from trying to give all 37 characters equal billing.
Gameplay
The gameplay of Samurai Warriors 5 consists of your chosen character and often a partner character working your way across a map packed with enemy troops. Most missions follow the formula of getting from point A to point B or get from point A to defeat boss at point B, although I must admit, victory conditions change often during the mission. Sometimes you’ll have to defeat various deputies before fighting the stage’s boss.
Each character has two main methods of attack with your standard attack being Square. This will hit every enemy in front of you dealing a small amount of damage. The next main method would be Triangle, also referred to as a Musou attack, this is usually a sweeping style attack that will send all enemies immediately in front of you up into the air to be combo’d and thrown about. The real fun comes in when you combo these attacks together, for example, you can hit Musou attack three times and finish up the combo by pressing square, this will usually do a slightly more damaging attack than normal, and the combo system is one of the systems I had the most fun within the game. Some missions will literally have you combo’ing enemies in the tens of thousands if not much more.
Each mission ranks you on numerous factors including time taken to complete a level and how many enemies you managed to combo etc. Sadly, this is where I tend to delve a little too deep and nothing, but an S rank will do for me. Luckily, playing in normal mode, this was not too hard a task to pull off and even in some missions where I got straight up lost, the other factors at play still meant I got my S rank.
Each character you unlock has a specific proficiency with the weapon type they come equipped with but in Samurai Warriors 5, you have the freedom to equip whatever type of weapon you want to any character which is a nice addition and means you really can customize your favourite warrior in any fighting style you choose. Speaking of fighting styles, it’s worth noting you unlock additional attacks that you can assign to any of the face buttons and can be activated by holding down R1 + face button. These skills can be anything from a temporary buff, such as enhanced speed to additional attacks and evasion moves which can help to get you out of a tight spot. These each have separate timers almost like an MMO and can be used over and over providing you have allowed adequate time for a meter recharge.
Overall, all these mechanics layer on top of each other and create quite a satisfying gameplay loop. While out fighting battles you’ll unlock gold, exp, weapons and skill points, these can be used to upgrade your warriors allowing you to take on more difficult battles, thus gaining better equipment etc it’s all very addictive and rewarding!
After playing a little while, you’ll unlock Citadel mode. Citadel mode is fantastic and almost plays like a tower defence style game with you usually fighting wave after wave of enemies. Your levels, loot and progression carry over into the main mode also, so you don’t have to worry about missing out on anything there.
I played the PS4 version via backwards compatibility via PS5 and I had great performance the whole way through the game. I think my brain remembers the sub-30fps dips that Hyrule Warriors is plagued with and assumed the worst, but I’m happy to report everything was incredibly smooth and I’m sure this is partially down to the art direction. Samurai Warriors 5 opts for a very nice cel-shaded look that looks classy while (assumedly) cutting back on the polygons and textures somewhat. The style really suits the game and gives it a pseudo-anime style which has some really nice effects during weapon animations etc. This is a direction I wouldn’t mind seeing in future iterations of the Warriors franchise.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I expected Samurai Warriors 5 to be yet another Warriors game, and I wasn’t wrong, but it does seem to streamline the series and feels like a breath of fresh air. Samurai Warriors 5 is a great game and I once again, fell for the addictive gameplay loop that only a Warriors game can offer. Even while I am writing this, I feel the urge to go back and play a little more of the Citadel mode. I would recommend picking this up, especially if you have never played a Musou style game before, but be warned series veterans, this offering may seem a little bare-bones from what you’ve come to expect.
8
PS4 review code kindly provided by Koei Tecmo